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This week Arts In Context Shorts show how medical illustrations can make beautiful art. Brazilian-born cardiologist Carlos Machado first discovered Frank Netter’s celebrated medical illustrations as a six-year-old boy. Over the course of his life and even throughout his time in medical school, Machado has worked to hone his talent for illustration while embracing hyperrealism. Eventually, he was chosen to become the successor to Dr. Netter and worked as a valuable contributor to “The Netter Collection of Medical Illustrations.”

This week, Arts In Context Shorts presents the art of thinking fast. Founded as a platform for hip-hop artists, the Austin Mic Exchange works tirelessly to create a community of aspiring and independent emcees. Their weekly open mic nights are a haven for artists seeking stage time, a forum for the city’s best emcees to connect with their peers, and an invaluable opportunity to hone their craft. Freestylers electrify the crowd as they perform their highwire act – improvising frenetically and letting the flow take over them. Part showcase, part community event, and all love, these open mics cultivate the small but fiercely active hip-hop community in Austin.

Arts In Context Shorts introduces us to a group working to change lives. Teaching students to embrace their own cultures, Roots & Rhythms is an after-school drumming program founded in 2008 by Sevylla del Mazo. With drums created from recycled buckets, the bilingual students of Roots & Rhythms collaborate, create, and have some fun while learning the basics of percussion. Thanks to a grant from the City of Austin’s Economic Growth & Redevelopment Services Office/Cultural Arts Division, this program continues to foster ties in surrounding communities and inspires hope for local children.

This week Arts In Context Shorts explores the beauty of Waller Creek. On November 13, 2014, a small stretch of Waller Creek in downtown Austin, Texas was lit up with modern light installations created by five local architects and landscape designers. These light pieces were designed to showcase the space’s potential, since soon a series of parks and connected trails will be developed in the location. Organized by the Waller Creek Conservancy and featuring live local music, the event drew strolling crowds to the walkways and various creekside businesses.

Arts In Context is celebrating its fifth season, and we’re throwing a party! The premiere episode, Rebirth, features Austin’s experimental indie folk band Les RAV. Please join us for a screening followed by a Q&A with director Mario Troncoso and a special live performance by Les RAV. Enjoy beverages from Live Oak and sweet & savory treats from Cornucopia Popcorn Creations, too!

DATE: Tuesday, October 28thTIME: 7 pm event starts (doors open at 6:30pm)LOCATION: KLRU Studio 6A(map)RSVP: The event is free, but an RSVP is required to attend. RSVP HERE

About the Episode: RebirthBorn out of intense personal hardship, Les RAV – the classically-influenced experimental indie folk band – is the musical brainchild of Lauren Bruno, an ethereal, infinitely positive songwriter. Beyond the music, Bruno uses Les RAV to spread and foster a message of peace, connection, and understanding to anyone who will listen. Though diagnosed with ulcerative colitis early on in life, Bruno uses this often debilitating disease as motivation to spread her message of hope with even more fervor and intensity. Her haunting vocals and melodies reel listeners in but it’s her overwhelming sense of hopefulness and goodness that keeps them in.

Arts in Context will present a special screening of the director’s cut of the episode Not Alone, a documentary about musician Shakey Graves. Following the screening Shakey Graves will perform live in the studio.

Date: Tuesday, March 11Time: 7pm | Doors at 6:30pmLocation: KLRU’s Studio 6A (map)RSVP: The event is free, but an RSVP is required. RSVP HereRSVP does not guarantee entrance.

Shakey Graves turns his one-man band into a do-it-yourself success story. Through nothing but word-of-mouth, Alejandro Rose-Garcia, a.k.a. Shakey Graves, has gone from obscurity to the national spotlight. His gravelly-voiced, impassioned, blues performances are the stuff of legend. “Shakey Graves is becoming an anti-folk phenomenon even in a city weary of ‘next big things.’ Unclassifiable original. And frighteningly good,” says NPR Music.

The City of Austin will premiere its Faces of Austin short film selections for 2014 as part of the SXSW Film Community Screenings on Saturday, March 8 at 11:00 a.m. at the Marchesa Hall and Theatre, 6226 Middle Fiskville Rd. The 2014 Faces of Austin premiere is free, open to the public, and does not require a SXSW film badge or pass.

The 12 films chosen this year were all made by local filmmakers and highlight the people, institutions, and cultures that make up Austin. Several films feature local non-profit organizations, such as Goodwill of Central Texas and the Austin Bike Zoo. Other films focus on unique individuals within the community, including a Hurricane Katrina survivor who now calls Austin home and pioneers of the local civil rights movement.

Faces of Austin is intended to showcase the work of Austin filmmakers that reflects the diverse faces, voices, and experiences that make up Austin’s unique identity. Individual films from the 2014 collection will be viewable on ATXN, online, and at special screenings.

Faces of Austin is a program of the Cultural Arts Division of the City of Austin’s Economic Development Department and ATXN, the City’s government access channel. The program debuted in 2005; this year marks the seventh year of showcasing Austin-made short films. The 2014 program was supported by SXSW Film and the Austin Film Society.

City of Austin Cultural Arts Division
The Cultural Arts Division of the Economic Development Department provides leadership and management for the City’s cultural arts programs and for the development of arts and cultural industries. The Cultural Arts Division is responsible for the Cultural Arts Funding Programs, Art in Public Places Program, community-based arts development, and programs to assist the development of film and creative industries in Austin. For more information, visit www.austincreates.com.

Painting with a palette of unconventional mediums, once a month baristas and coffee nerds transform our early-morning beverages into temporary pieces of art at TNT ATX, a head-to-head latte art throwdown. These latte artists travel from across Texas for coffee, competition, camaraderie and community. With skilled craftsmanship and a touch of chemistry, these latte artists continue to pour their heart out.

“The year is 1933. Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Molly Sloan and her intrepid research assistant Timmy Mendez team up with a mysterious librarian from Flagstaff, Arizona, named Ben Wilcott. Together, they travel from Rumania to Scotland to the Alps to Tunis to the Robot Planet and finally to Imperial Zygon to defeat a terrible threat to the very future of humanity: an invading force of sludge-monsters from outer space known as the Zygonians.”

This month’s episode of Arts In Context will take us inside the unique production of the Live-Action Graphic Novel that is the Intergalactic Nemesis. Projecting the artwork from the original comic-book story panel-by-panel, while three actors voiced the characters, one performer created sound-effects, and a keyboardist performed the score, The Intergalactic Nemesis, Book One: Target Earth was an instant sensation when it debuted in the Long Center in 2010. Since then it has been featured on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” “Conan,” and is now on a world tour.

Arts In Context has been closely following the Intergalactic Nemesis crew behind the scenes of their rising production of Book One: Target Earth for the past few months. Full of striking images and interviews, this episode captures the creative process of the Intergalactic crew. But on this episode Arts In Context is trying something new. The crew is collaborating with documentary filmmaker Anton Curley, using footage from his upcoming film, Nemesis Rising. Nemesis Rising is a feature length film on the Intergalactic Nemesis that follows the crew through their history, their first national tour, and into their future from Volume 2 and beyond. In combination with the documentary that Arts In Context has been working on, this episode will tell the story of the the Intergalactic Nemesis crew from their small beginnings to their debut in Broadway earlier in April. This collaboration will make for a unique episode of Arts in Context that cannot be missed.

Make sure to tune in on Thursday, April 25th at 7:30 pm to take an intimate behind the scenes look at the Live-Action Graphic Novel on Arts in Context: Intergalactic Nemesis.

To see if the Intergalactic Nemsis is coming to you check out on their tour schedule.